This team is top 5 talent-wise. If we can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries, 13-3 might be generous, but 12-4 is very realistic, believe it or not. Fairley will make our defensive line the best in the NFL, which takes LOTS of pressure off the secondary, and our linebackers are no joke. DeAndre Levy is improving slowly but surely every year, Stephen Tulloch makes the tackles he needs to make, Justin Durant does what he needs to do. Our defense can be a legitimate top 15 unit, I think it'll be around #13 in yards given up, around #10 in points given up. The offense has potential to be #1, Stafford will only get better, we have the best receiver in football who demands a double team on nearly every play, Titus Young is ready to break out, and him and Nate Burleson are both legit #2 receivers, and we got the best route runner in NCAA for the past 4 years in Ryan Broyles on the team, then there's Pettigrew who's becoming an elite TE and getting better every year, and Scheffler isn't bad for a #2 TE, our offensive line is good at pass-blocking which is our main focus on offense. Kevin Smith, Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will create a decent run game, around 120 yards a game combined if they can all stay relatively healthy, with Jahvid being capable of home runs and Kevin Smith being capable of big games, and Mikel as our power back. Jahvid missed 10 games last year. In his 6 games, he had a 163 yard rushing game vs the Bears, a HUGE screen pass that set us up for a score vs Minnesota, some good runs vs Tampa Bay and Kansas City, and a pretty good game against the Cowboys. He makes our offense better because if a team gets caught going hard to defend the pass and it's dumped off to Jahvid on a screen, it's absolutely deadly. In his first season he put up big numbers for a rookie even though he had bad turf toe on both feet. Last season he was on track for 1,000 rush yards. This team is MUCH better than it gets credit for.

Hey man, I'm as optomistic as the next guy, but I think the part in bold is a big hurdle to overcome.

Shoot you could prolly point to 7-10 teams right now who "If they can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries" could have 12-13 wins.

Fact is the Lions have only had ONE 12 win season in over 80 years. The reason - They made stupid mistakes (penalties fall in that catagory) at some point and had critical injuries to key personel.

I hope you are right though. I'd love to beat Green Bay, Chicago, and San Fran at thier home feilds. It'd be awesome. In fact, I love your whole list (except for us losing to Jacksonville).

August 4th, 2012, 11:02 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions 2012-2013 game-by-game predictions?

Hystrix wrote:

Shotty wrote:

Pablo wrote:

I have to say, those predictions are pretty shotty!

This team is top 5 talent-wise. If we can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries, 13-3 might be generous, but 12-4 is very realistic, believe it or not. Fairley will make our defensive line the best in the NFL, which takes LOTS of pressure off the secondary, and our linebackers are no joke. DeAndre Levy is improving slowly but surely every year, Stephen Tulloch makes the tackles he needs to make, Justin Durant does what he needs to do. Our defense can be a legitimate top 15 unit, I think it'll be around #13 in yards given up, around #10 in points given up. The offense has potential to be #1, Stafford will only get better, we have the best receiver in football who demands a double team on nearly every play, Titus Young is ready to break out, and him and Nate Burleson are both legit #2 receivers, and we got the best route runner in NCAA for the past 4 years in Ryan Broyles on the team, then there's Pettigrew who's becoming an elite TE and getting better every year, and Scheffler isn't bad for a #2 TE, our offensive line is good at pass-blocking which is our main focus on offense. Kevin Smith, Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will create a decent run game, around 120 yards a game combined if they can all stay relatively healthy, with Jahvid being capable of home runs and Kevin Smith being capable of big games, and Mikel as our power back. Jahvid missed 10 games last year. In his 6 games, he had a 163 yard rushing game vs the Bears, a HUGE screen pass that set us up for a score vs Minnesota, some good runs vs Tampa Bay and Kansas City, and a pretty good game against the Cowboys. He makes our offense better because if a team gets caught going hard to defend the pass and it's dumped off to Jahvid on a screen, it's absolutely deadly. In his first season he put up big numbers for a rookie even though he had bad turf toe on both feet. Last season he was on track for 1,000 rush yards. This team is MUCH better than it gets credit for.

Hey man, I'm as optomistic as the next guy, but I think the part in bold is a big hurdle to overcome.

Shoot you could prolly point to 7-10 teams right now who "If they can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries" could have 12-13 wins.

Fact is the Lions have only had ONE 12 win season in over 80 years. The reason - They made stupid mistakes (penalties fall in that catagory) at some point and had critical injuries to key personel.

I hope you are right though. I'd love to beat Green Bay, Chicago, and San Fran at thier home feilds. It'd be awesome. In fact, I love your whole list (except for us losing to Jacksonville).

I'd be surprised if you could name a team being held back by penalties as much as the Lions, particularly stupid penalties. I think we will become an elite team next year with Fairley making our D-line the best in the league which will help our defense take a BIG step, and we'll just focus on putting up more points than every team we face. I say "big injuries" because D-line injuries and a few other starters being injured can be dealt with, but Stafford, Megatron, or 3 DBs getting injured (which destroyed our secondary at the end of last year) can lose us games.

Upsets happen. Jacksonville will catch us sleeping while we're streaking for the most part and beating good teams.

_________________

August 4th, 2012, 11:14 pm

kdsberman

Team MVP

Joined: February 20th, 2007, 10:51 pmPosts: 3422Location: Saginaw, MI

Re: Lions 2012-2013 game-by-game predictions?

Shotty wrote:

Hystrix wrote:

Shotty wrote:

Pablo wrote:

I have to say, those predictions are pretty shotty!

This team is top 5 talent-wise. If we can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries, 13-3 might be generous, but 12-4 is very realistic, believe it or not. Fairley will make our defensive line the best in the NFL, which takes LOTS of pressure off the secondary, and our linebackers are no joke. DeAndre Levy is improving slowly but surely every year, Stephen Tulloch makes the tackles he needs to make, Justin Durant does what he needs to do. Our defense can be a legitimate top 15 unit, I think it'll be around #13 in yards given up, around #10 in points given up. The offense has potential to be #1, Stafford will only get better, we have the best receiver in football who demands a double team on nearly every play, Titus Young is ready to break out, and him and Nate Burleson are both legit #2 receivers, and we got the best route runner in NCAA for the past 4 years in Ryan Broyles on the team, then there's Pettigrew who's becoming an elite TE and getting better every year, and Scheffler isn't bad for a #2 TE, our offensive line is good at pass-blocking which is our main focus on offense. Kevin Smith, Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will create a decent run game, around 120 yards a game combined if they can all stay relatively healthy, with Jahvid being capable of home runs and Kevin Smith being capable of big games, and Mikel as our power back. Jahvid missed 10 games last year. In his 6 games, he had a 163 yard rushing game vs the Bears, a HUGE screen pass that set us up for a score vs Minnesota, some good runs vs Tampa Bay and Kansas City, and a pretty good game against the Cowboys. He makes our offense better because if a team gets caught going hard to defend the pass and it's dumped off to Jahvid on a screen, it's absolutely deadly. In his first season he put up big numbers for a rookie even though he had bad turf toe on both feet. Last season he was on track for 1,000 rush yards. This team is MUCH better than it gets credit for.

Hey man, I'm as optomistic as the next guy, but I think the part in bold is a big hurdle to overcome.

Shoot you could prolly point to 7-10 teams right now who "If they can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries" could have 12-13 wins.

Fact is the Lions have only had ONE 12 win season in over 80 years. The reason - They made stupid mistakes (penalties fall in that catagory) at some point and had critical injuries to key personel.

I hope you are right though. I'd love to beat Green Bay, Chicago, and San Fran at thier home feilds. It'd be awesome. In fact, I love your whole list (except for us losing to Jacksonville).

I'd be surprised if you could name a team being held back by penalties as much as the Lions, particularly stupid penalties. I think we will become an elite team next year with Fairley making our D-line the best in the league which will help our defense take a BIG step, and we'll just focus on putting up more points than every team we face. I say "big injuries" because D-line injuries and a few other starters being injured can be dealt with, but Stafford, Megatron, or 3 DBs getting injured (which destroyed our secondary at the end of last year) can lose us games.

Upsets happen. Jacksonville will catch us sleeping while we're streaking for the most part and beating good teams.

I completely understand what you're saying, but Jacksonville would have to catch us in a dang coma...they are bad. Defense is good, but that passing offense is embarrassing. But it is the NFL..anything can happen.

This team is top 5 talent-wise. If we can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries, 13-3 might be generous, but 12-4 is very realistic, believe it or not. Fairley will make our defensive line the best in the NFL, which takes LOTS of pressure off the secondary, and our linebackers are no joke. DeAndre Levy is improving slowly but surely every year, Stephen Tulloch makes the tackles he needs to make, Justin Durant does what he needs to do. Our defense can be a legitimate top 15 unit, I think it'll be around #13 in yards given up, around #10 in points given up. The offense has potential to be #1, Stafford will only get better, we have the best receiver in football who demands a double team on nearly every play, Titus Young is ready to break out, and him and Nate Burleson are both legit #2 receivers, and we got the best route runner in NCAA for the past 4 years in Ryan Broyles on the team, then there's Pettigrew who's becoming an elite TE and getting better every year, and Scheffler isn't bad for a #2 TE, our offensive line is good at pass-blocking which is our main focus on offense. Kevin Smith, Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will create a decent run game, around 120 yards a game combined if they can all stay relatively healthy, with Jahvid being capable of home runs and Kevin Smith being capable of big games, and Mikel as our power back. Jahvid missed 10 games last year. In his 6 games, he had a 163 yard rushing game vs the Bears, a HUGE screen pass that set us up for a score vs Minnesota, some good runs vs Tampa Bay and Kansas City, and a pretty good game against the Cowboys. He makes our offense better because if a team gets caught going hard to defend the pass and it's dumped off to Jahvid on a screen, it's absolutely deadly. In his first season he put up big numbers for a rookie even though he had bad turf toe on both feet. Last season he was on track for 1,000 rush yards. This team is MUCH better than it gets credit for.

Hey man, I'm as optomistic as the next guy, but I think the part in bold is a big hurdle to overcome.

Shoot you could prolly point to 7-10 teams right now who "If they can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries" could have 12-13 wins.

Fact is the Lions have only had ONE 12 win season in over 80 years. The reason - They made stupid mistakes (penalties fall in that catagory) at some point and had critical injuries to key personel.

I hope you are right though. I'd love to beat Green Bay, Chicago, and San Fran at thier home feilds. It'd be awesome. In fact, I love your whole list (except for us losing to Jacksonville).

I'd be surprised if you could name a team being held back by penalties as much as the Lions, particularly stupid penalties. I think we will become an elite team next year with Fairley making our D-line the best in the league which will help our defense take a BIG step, and we'll just focus on putting up more points than every team we face. I say "big injuries" because D-line injuries and a few other starters being injured can be dealt with, but Stafford, Megatron, or 3 DBs getting injured (which destroyed our secondary at the end of last year) can lose us games.

Upsets happen. Jacksonville will catch us sleeping while we're streaking for the most part and beating good teams.

Ok. I see what you are saying. Yeah, avoiding losing big players like Staff and Megatron. Got it.

And I agree that the Lions were penalized heavily last year. Reducing that is possible, and would help.

I still hope you are wrong about Jacksonville though...

August 5th, 2012, 8:39 am

conversion02

RIP Killer

Joined: January 26th, 2005, 9:34 pmPosts: 10467Location: Sycamore, IL

Re: Lions Predictions

To sop up the drooling optimism, remember that webarely beat a number of sub-adequate teams last year (minny, Dallas, etc). We were getting wrecked in those games until the other team imploded.

I'm not saying you're right or wrong, Shotty - but remember there are fans of at least 20 other teams out there making the same rationale about their players and this year's record.

Your case on the secondary and linebackers is pretty weak. Saying a player "does what he needs to do" is fine - if what he's doing is playing like a probowl linebacker... because that is what they need to do to be top 5 talent. If what you mean is that he makes tackles - that's not enough. And although your point about the DL helping the secondary is true, I don't know if you can also say there is top 5 talent there at the same time. Just sayin'.

At 13-3 you're likely saying the Lions will have or tie for the best regular season record in the NFL. In a division with two other teams that are projecting in the preseason to be top 10. And with games against SF, Atl, Houston and Philly to boot. 7 games against top teams, and you're projecting one loss.

Last year at this time, I dismissed Tampa Bay as "overrated" because in 2010, they hadn't beaten a single team with a winning record. If I'm going to be consistent with that analysis, the same applies to Detroit this year. The Lions' "best" victories came against 8-8 teams.

With that said, the Lions 2012 schedule appears to be easier than the 2011 schedule. This year's non-division opponents are in the AFC South and NFC West. Aside from Houston, there isn't a single good QB in either division. Obviously SF looks tough even without a decent QB. On paper, these eight games feature only two good teams. The Lions ought to emerge from these games 6-2.

I imagine the NFC North as another split: 3-3 in the division. Arguably the best division in football.

That makes the Lions 9-5 with two remaining games: at Philadelphia and home vs. Atlanta. I don't buy the hype of Philly and don't see Atlanta as a much-improved team in 2012. I think the Lions could win one of these games, to finish the season 10-6 yet again. If they win both of these, it could be 11-5; if they lose both, they'll be 9-7.

So I'm guessing 10-6. Is that good enough for the playoffs? Depends on how Chicago fares vs. Dallas and Carolina.

_________________Proud member of the Contract Extension for Schwartz Fan Club.

August 5th, 2012, 12:17 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions 2012-2013 game-by-game predictions?

Hystrix wrote:

Shotty wrote:

Hystrix wrote:

Shotty wrote:

Pablo wrote:

I have to say, those predictions are pretty shotty!

This team is top 5 talent-wise. If we can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries, 13-3 might be generous, but 12-4 is very realistic, believe it or not. Fairley will make our defensive line the best in the NFL, which takes LOTS of pressure off the secondary, and our linebackers are no joke. DeAndre Levy is improving slowly but surely every year, Stephen Tulloch makes the tackles he needs to make, Justin Durant does what he needs to do. Our defense can be a legitimate top 15 unit, I think it'll be around #13 in yards given up, around #10 in points given up. The offense has potential to be #1, Stafford will only get better, we have the best receiver in football who demands a double team on nearly every play, Titus Young is ready to break out, and him and Nate Burleson are both legit #2 receivers, and we got the best route runner in NCAA for the past 4 years in Ryan Broyles on the team, then there's Pettigrew who's becoming an elite TE and getting better every year, and Scheffler isn't bad for a #2 TE, our offensive line is good at pass-blocking which is our main focus on offense. Kevin Smith, Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will create a decent run game, around 120 yards a game combined if they can all stay relatively healthy, with Jahvid being capable of home runs and Kevin Smith being capable of big games, and Mikel as our power back. Jahvid missed 10 games last year. In his 6 games, he had a 163 yard rushing game vs the Bears, a HUGE screen pass that set us up for a score vs Minnesota, some good runs vs Tampa Bay and Kansas City, and a pretty good game against the Cowboys. He makes our offense better because if a team gets caught going hard to defend the pass and it's dumped off to Jahvid on a screen, it's absolutely deadly. In his first season he put up big numbers for a rookie even though he had bad turf toe on both feet. Last season he was on track for 1,000 rush yards. This team is MUCH better than it gets credit for.

Hey man, I'm as optomistic as the next guy, but I think the part in bold is a big hurdle to overcome.

Shoot you could prolly point to 7-10 teams right now who "If they can cut down on the pointless penalties and don't have any big injuries" could have 12-13 wins.

Fact is the Lions have only had ONE 12 win season in over 80 years. The reason - They made stupid mistakes (penalties fall in that catagory) at some point and had critical injuries to key personel.

I hope you are right though. I'd love to beat Green Bay, Chicago, and San Fran at thier home feilds. It'd be awesome. In fact, I love your whole list (except for us losing to Jacksonville).

I'd be surprised if you could name a team being held back by penalties as much as the Lions, particularly stupid penalties. I think we will become an elite team next year with Fairley making our D-line the best in the league which will help our defense take a BIG step, and we'll just focus on putting up more points than every team we face. I say "big injuries" because D-line injuries and a few other starters being injured can be dealt with, but Stafford, Megatron, or 3 DBs getting injured (which destroyed our secondary at the end of last year) can lose us games.

Upsets happen. Jacksonville will catch us sleeping while we're streaking for the most part and beating good teams.

Ok. I see what you are saying. Yeah, avoiding losing big players like Staff and Megatron. Got it.

And I agree that the Lions were penalized heavily last year. Reducing that is possible, and would help.

I still hope you are wrong about Jacksonville though...

Now thinking about it, all this optimism for them may be because I was so sure he would be better than Cam Newton last year lol. In all honestly, I think he'll have a fairly decent sophomore season, with stats like 19 TDs, 20 INTs, 3,200 yards.

_________________

August 5th, 2012, 12:57 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions Predictions

conversion02 wrote:

To sop up the drooling optimism, remember that webarely beat a number of sub-adequate teams last year (minny, Dallas, etc). We were getting wrecked in those games until the other team imploded.

About Dallas, that is true, but Dallas is a playoff team if they won games they should've taken against us and the Cardinals when they iced themselves and made the FG, then missed it, so would've won the game if they didn't call a timeout. They win those two, they're in the playoffs. Rob Ryan had an amazing game plan for our offense and Dez Bryant was jumping over our cornerbacks for touchdowns. Towards the end of last season, we started games MUCH better than we did in the beginning. That Minnesota game, though, we didn't let them score anything but a field goal. Our defense stepped up big time and our offense took what that defense gave them. I just hope we can play 60 minutes of Lions football every game next year.

_________________

August 5th, 2012, 1:03 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions Predictions

Guys, the main reason I'm predicting the squad to go 13-3 is because we have little amounts of holes on the roster, and both are lessened because of other positions. The secondary is terrible, but it was a top 10 unit, #9 to be exact, last year before Houston, Berry, and Delmas all went down against Green Bay and missed the rest of the regular season, and in case anyone forgot, we didn't allow a single point until all of them went down and Clay Matthews picked off a tipped pass on our side of the field for an easy GB score. All because of our D-line rotation, and a big part of that is Nick Fairley returning. He was making Carl Nicks look like a little kid when he was as healthy as he got all season against the Saints in December at about 70%. Watch the game, before he re-injured his foot in the 2nd quarter, he was getting in the backfield on every single play, had a tackle for loss in which he shoved Carl Nicks out of the way effortlessly and threw the RB to the ground and sacked Brees on another play. He will be great next year and make our D-line the undisputed best because of the talent and depth. If we didn't have 8 good D-lineman in a rotation, 3 of which will be top 10 by the end of next year, then I'd be worried about our secondary. The LBs aren't bad either.

Now, the run game. This will be random, no doubt. Last year Kevin Smith returned and had a great game against the Panthers, then had a high ankle sprain, I believe the next game. He was a stud that Carolina game, breaking tackles here and there. With him healthy as our all-around back, Mikel Leshoure as our power back, and Jahvid as our home-run back. All will be healthy which makes the chances of all of them being injured at the same time again VERY unlikely. I think we'll finish next year with around 115 rush yards per game, with Kevin Smith being the only 1,000 yard rusher, Jahvid having 2 home runs throughout the season and 1,000 receiving yards. Jahvid is a dual-threat, and a complete nightmare as a match-up and on screens.

Both of our biggest problems last year will be improved with the D-line getting even better and all RBs healthy.

Our D-line will be the difference in both games against Chicago, San Fran's front 7 will give us serious problems all game, so they'll take that one, Green Bay will steal one at Ford Field, but we'll get them on their field later in the season, we'll sack Ryan at least 5 times in our meeting, take a close one against Houston with home-field advantage helping, Jason Peters will miss all nest season, so Philly's line will be very vulnerable, so I see our D-line giving Vick problems all game will be the difference in that game. We lose 1 other game, which can be any of these or against the worse teams. 13-3 is my honest prediction right now. It may sound like a unlikely thing, but we just need to get a bit lucky and have little amounts of injuries, and if they do happen, only for 1-6 games.

_________________

August 5th, 2012, 1:26 pm

I.E.

Walk On

Joined: September 11th, 2010, 10:19 pmPosts: 408

Re: Lions Predictions

Don't be so sure that other teams aren't going to react & plan effectively for Detroit's Dline. Remember Chicago is going to be using a lot of 3 step drops, and keeping Cutler & the pocket moving. Chicago's big problem has been Cutler being a "destination QB" under Martz, not being able to get rid of the ball as the destination pocket collapsed quickly ... plus an Oline freaked out by what they were being asked to do (resulting in a lot of false starts). Tice is going to have them more confident and assertive. Both of the winning streaks the team had in the past two years were when Tice and Cutler forced Lovie to exert influence over Martz's play calling & do the type of things they're now planning to do all the time.

And remember the Detroit Dline gave up 2000 yards rushing last year, at 5 yards/carry clip... they aren't really very good at stopping the run, and neither are the LBs. This is not a small thing in the NFL. Teams with a legit running game and a QB who can make plays on the run will challenge Detroit's D at all levels.

In Chicago's case, that's Forte, Bush and Cutler.

I'm not saying Detroit DL won't be a force - I'm just saying this is the NFL and teams adjust & surprise. What went well last year sometimes doesn't go as well this year, and vice-versa.

August 5th, 2012, 3:40 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions Predictions

I.E. wrote:

Don't be so sure that other teams aren't going to react & plan effectively for Detroit's Dline. Remember Chicago is going to be using a lot of 3 step drops, and keeping Cutler & the pocket moving. Chicago's big problem has been Cutler being a "destination QB" under Martz, not being able to get rid of the ball as the destination pocket collapsed quickly ... plus an Oline freaked out by what they were being asked to do (resulting in a lot of false starts). Tice is going to have them more confident and assertive. Both of the winning streaks the team had in the past two years were when Tice and Cutler forced Lovie to exert influence over Martz's play calling & do the type of things they're now planning to do all the time.

And remember the Detroit Dline gave up 2000 yards rushing last year, at 5 yards/carry clip... they aren't really very good at stopping the run, and neither are the LBs. This is not a small thing in the NFL. Teams with a legit running game and a QB who can make plays on the run will challenge Detroit's D at all levels.

In Chicago's case, that's Forte, Bush and Cutler.

I'm not saying Detroit DL won't be a force - I'm just saying this is the NFL and teams adjust & surprise. What went well last year sometimes doesn't go as well this year, and vice-versa.

Don't you think with Fairley playing the LBs will be able to stay back and in their zones more often? Last year a few big runs were because LBs were out of position or blitzing and the secondary missed tackles that could've contained them. Look at the Giants. Their LBs are no better than ours, but the D-line made the run defense look good. Fairley is better than Corey Williams is what I'm getting at.+

_________________

August 5th, 2012, 4:56 pm

I.E.

Walk On

Joined: September 11th, 2010, 10:19 pmPosts: 408

Re: Lions Predictions

Well, the Gints play a 3-4, so I really don't get the comparison.

No - I don't think you can hang your hat on Fairly to be that big of an impact over Williams, or really change much on the edges & second two levels.

It isn't that I disagree with your points that much - just the follow-on assumption that it all adds up to 13-3. 13-3 is a record achieved by either very good teams or very lucky teams. I don't think the Lions are that exceptional (especially in the NFCN) to warrant that kind of prediction.

I understand this is the kool-aid zone, when records like that are predicted - so I should just shut up and stop trying to reason with excitement.

August 5th, 2012, 5:41 pm

Shotty

Millen Draft Pick - Epic Bust

Joined: July 3rd, 2012, 2:06 amPosts: 717

Re: Lions Predictions

I.E. wrote:

Well, the Gints play a 3-4, so I really don't get the comparison.

No - I don't think you can hang your hat on Fairly to be that big of an impact over Williams, or really change much on the edges & second two levels.

It isn't that I disagree with your points that much - just the follow-on assumption that it all adds up to 13-3. 13-3 is a record achieved by either very good teams or very lucky teams. I don't think the Lions are that exceptional (especially in the NFCN) to warrant that kind of prediction.

I understand this is the kool-aid zone, when records like that are predicted - so I should just shut up and stop trying to reason with excitement.

I just checked, they run a 4-3. If they can win a Super Bowl with a worse offensive line, a terrible run game, and a pass game just as good as the Lions and on defense our line is just as good as theirs because of depth, our LBs are better, an our secondary can get the job done as long as there's pressure on every play. What do you think the Lions lack that doesn't make them elite?

_________________

August 5th, 2012, 6:09 pm

I.E.

Walk On

Joined: September 11th, 2010, 10:19 pmPosts: 408

Re: Lions Predictions

Shotty wrote:

I.E. wrote:

Well, the Gints play a 3-4, so I really don't get the comparison.

No - I don't think you can hang your hat on Fairly to be that big of an impact over Williams, or really change much on the edges & second two levels.

It isn't that I disagree with your points that much - just the follow-on assumption that it all adds up to 13-3. 13-3 is a record achieved by either very good teams or very lucky teams. I don't think the Lions are that exceptional (especially in the NFCN) to warrant that kind of prediction.

I understand this is the kool-aid zone, when records like that are predicted - so I should just shut up and stop trying to reason with excitement.

I just checked, they run a 4-3. If they can win a Super Bowl with a worse offensive line, a terrible run game, and a pass game just as good as the Lions and on defense our line is just as good as theirs because of depth, our LBs are better, an our secondary can get the job done as long as there's pressure on every play. What do you think the Lions lack that doesn't make them elite?

I'm not going to argue with your opinions. But if you're going to go for it on every assumption, why try to temper it with a couple of bogus losses? Why not just go for 15-1, with a Packer split. All your rationale still stands.